[nabs-l] Very Preliminary Impressions of the Mac

Fri May 14 00:17:18 UTC 2010

Hi Briley,
Where did you rent the Mack?  Also thanks for your advice on the Mack models 
in response to my email.
Best,
Dennis

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Briley Pollard" <brileyp at gmail.com>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2010 12:17 PM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Very Preliminary Impressions of the Mac

> What I did before purchase was rent a Mac for a week. That way, I had more 
> than 15 minutes to fall in love. Getting the hang of a new OS and screen 
> reader won't happen in store.
>
> Best,
> Briley
> On May 13, 2010, at 11:42 AM, Dennis Clark wrote:
>
>> Hi Joe,'
>> I really appreciate hearing your observations.  I plan on taking a 
>> similar Mac product journey soon.
>> Best,
>> Dennis
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joe Orozco" <jsorozco at gmail.com>
>> To: "'NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List'" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>; "'National 
>> Association of Blind Students mailing list'" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2010 7:23 AM
>> Subject: [nabs-l] Very Preliminary Impressions of the Mac
>>
>>
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> Earlier this week I had the privilege of handling a Mac Book Pro, iPad 
>>> and
>>> iPhone, none of which I'd previously touched before.  These impressions 
>>> are
>>> very preliminary and full of bias from a PC user.
>>>
>>> Mac Book Pro:
>>>
>>> I handled a 13-inch model, and the keyboard was fantastic.  I don't know
>>> that I would jump at the opportunity to switch from my current Dell
>>> Latitude, but if I had no other choice, the Mac Book Pro would not be a
>>> disappointment in the slightest.  Very solid hardware and sleek design. 
>>> I
>>> have long fingers, and the keyboard was sufficiently comfortable.
>>>
>>> Voiceover:
>>>
>>> The speech is excellent.  It is very human-sounding and did not distort 
>>> with
>>> faster speeds.  Perhaps because the screen reader is built into the
>>> operating system, I did not hear any pauses or experience too many 
>>> delays in
>>> accessing what I needed.  Where my admiration fell short was in the 
>>> logic of
>>> the command structure.  When navigating in Safari, for example, I used 
>>> the
>>> VO keys plus Left and Right arrows to navigate hyperlink by hyperlink. 
>>> I
>>> understand there are different modes to navigate web pages, but I 
>>> somehow
>>> enjoy the JAWS capacity to jump in different blocks with greater 
>>> flexibility
>>> without the need to make adjustments.  I did not much care for having to
>>> copy and paste content from the iWorks processor to the text processor 
>>> to be
>>> able to tell certain formatting attributes.  Finally, I was not keen on
>>> relying on VO keys as the central point to make what appeared to be the
>>> majority of all keystrokes.  On a PC I suppose it is enjoyable to 
>>> interact
>>> more with a larger percentage of my keyboard.  Certain keystrokes on the 
>>> Mac
>>> Book Pro felt awkward to perform with one hand.  Activating check boxes 
>>> and
>>> selecting items from lists was awkward.
>>>
>>> iPad:
>>>
>>> I wasn't a fan.  The Kindle is more compact, boasts a physical keyboard 
>>> and
>>> to me just seems much more comfortable.  Both the iPad and iPhone use 
>>> the
>>> same screen reader the Victor Reader Stream uses.  Disappointing.  I 
>>> somehow
>>> thought these two products also used the Alex voice, but perhaps this is
>>> simply processor capacity?  To me the iPad felt like a netbook with a 
>>> touch
>>> screen.  I did not much care for connecting a bluetooth keyboard for 
>>> more
>>> comfortable typing.  Portability seems to me the main driving motivator 
>>> to
>>> get an iPad, and as far as portability is concerned, the iPad fell very
>>> short of my expectations.
>>>
>>> iPhone:
>>>
>>> I sucked at using it in the very short length of time I had to play with 
>>> it.
>>> Yet, someone demonstrated how she could easily navigate and interact 
>>> with
>>> e-mail.  I don't know that I appreciated the size of the device, think 
>>> the
>>> Samsung Moment running Android feels more comfortable in my hand.  Yet, 
>>> the
>>> iPhone very clearly beats the Android seven ways to Sunday in terms of
>>> accessibility.  If you can figure out the touch screen, it may very well 
>>> be
>>> golden.
>>>
>>> So there you are, very basic impressions.  I plan to continue exploring 
>>> the
>>> Mac alternative and hope other people contemplating a switch will also 
>>> share
>>> their experiences moving from a PC environment.  If any of what I've 
>>> written
>>> here is wrong or misleading, please correct me, because it may well have
>>> been my own ignorance.  If you do play around with Mac products, just
>>> remember it's true that Mac systems are no PC.  Accept the alternative
>>> platform for what it is.
>>>
>>> Joe
>>>
>>> "Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their 
>>> sleeves,
>>> some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all."--Sam Ewing
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>>
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>>
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